It’s really come to this. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden issued a warning on Twitter that nobody, including himself ever thought would be necessary: ingesting cleaning products is bad. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach,” the former vice president tweeted on April 24, in response to President Donald Trump‘s astoundingly dangerous remarks the night prior. Trump mused during his April 23 briefing with the Coronavirus Task Force that perhaps Americans could “inject” disinfectant to treat COVID-19. The baffling remarks came after Homeland Security official Bill Bryan presented research showing that UV rays from sunlight, as well as basic disinfectants like bleach and alcohol, could kill coronavirus on surfaces. Stress on surfaces, here.
Trump interpreted Bryan’s remarks, somehow, to mean that human beings could administer cleaning products to themselves in order to rid their bodies of COVID-19. “I see that disinfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that. By injection inside… or almost a cleaning,” Trump said. “Cause you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs. It would be interesting to check that so you’ll have to use medical doctors. But it sounds interesting to me. We’ll see, but the whole concept of the light the way it goes in there in one minute. It’s pretty powerful.”
After Trump’s remarks, Twitter began flooding with jokes (and real concern) that people would start drinking Lysol and actually eating Tide Pods at the president’s wildly dangerous suggestion. As Biden put it, it should go without saying that you should do absolutely none of the above. Lysol was forced to issue a statement the same day as Biden’s, stressing that “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”
I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 24, 2020
Trump’s new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, issued a statement to reporters on April 24 defending the president’s remarks: “President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing. Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.” Trump contradicted McEnany hours later while speaking to the press, saying he was being sarcastic to see if the reporters would fall for it.
Have you registered to vote yet? If the answer is no, you can change that right now. Fill out the form below to register here on HollywoodLife, courtesy of our friends at Rock The Vote. November 3, 2020 is just around the corner: